Love the look of mixed metals? Have found objects taken you ‘beyond findings’…but your soldering’s not up to snuff? Cold connections are the common cure!
Also called cold fusion, cold connections are what they sound like: ways of putting metal jewelry together without dangerously glowing or flaming implements. Some tips on how to achieve this…
Tip 1: game spinners
Game spinner findings from Tim Holtz Idea-Ology are a super fun way to hold metal pieces together. They make jewelry you can play with!
Tip 2: the hardware store is your friend
Did you know that by getting into cold connections, you can help support local businesses? It’s true. The guys at your local hardware store needed to learn more about jewelrymaking anyhow, and they’ve got the teeny tiny hinges & things to hold your metal stamping blanks together!
Tip 3: there’s a really good book for that
There’s at least one awesome book about cold connections, and it’s so gorgeous that it’s sold as a coffee-table book too. Relax with Susan Lenart Kazmer’s book “Making Connections: A Handbook of Cold Joins for Jewelers and Mixed-Media Artists”. Susan’s all about using regular hand tools to join metal parts, found objects and even fabric into jewelry pieces that people won’t be able to keep their eyes, or hands, off of. (Just look at that cover!)
I know quite a few of you who have done some cold-connecting…care to share your work? Rings & Things (that’s us!) loves seeing your work — you can upload photos on our Facebook Bead Fans page!
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Nice! Melanie (our FB ‘blog partner’) posted a bunch of her cold-connections designs at our Facebook fan photos. See the R&T Bead Fans page to soak up the amazingness…
Also — here’s a brand-new R&T cast sterling floral button that will go perfectly with these kinds of designs…
–Dave
PS, “Unity” bracelet rivets 2 metal stamping blanks together…
And, the “North Star” necklace shifts gears into mixed metals etc….
(I shared these on Twitter, thought I should put ’em here too)
–Dave
Those earrings are truly cool!
Thanks, Lori, let us know if you make some steampunk designs too!
One of the most popular cold connection techniques are rivets. Rivets are a decorative and popular way of joining materials together and can be made from hollow tube or solid wire. The technique is the same but wire will create a solid rivet and a tube will create a rivet with a hole through the middle.